HOUSE OVERSIGHT INVESTIGATING EPA FOR $16 MILLION IN LEGAL FEES SPENT SETTLING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS
Biden administration supercharging controversial “sue and settle” practice to expand environmental rules-and-regs.
The first full week of the year is in the books, and we’re already off to an action packed start!
Congressional leaders are once again acting on key information uncovered by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has opened an investigation into the EPA’s controversial “sue and settle” tactic that involves outside groups – frequently environmentalists – suing the agency to expand its work.
The EPA is settling these lawsuits behind closed doors and reimbursing millions of legal fees to the environmentalists.
The Biden practice was first highlighted last July in our EPA Oversight Report, and we shared our findings with the Washington Examiner, all cited by the committee in its initial letter to the EPA.
Critics say “sue and settle” creates an end-run around Congress, state governments, and private businesses affected by the new, often costly, rules.
Worse, there’s concern that ideological bureaucrats are happy for outside organizations to sue for a regulation they already favor creating, effectively inviting the litigation and then paying the plaintiff’s legal fees.
Those fees have cost us, the taxpayers, over $16 MILLION since 2013!
I immediately took this to The National Desk to share with viewers across the country via their local newscasts.
Sue and settle” was heavily favored by the Obama administration. President Trump’s EPA administrator reformed the practice, creating more transparency for stakeholders who may object — and thus less incentive to sue in the first place.
Current EPA Administrator, Michael S. Regan, rolled back most of the reforms, and thus far the Biden administration has spent more of our tax dollars on these legal fees than any other in history.
READ MORE ON OUR SUBSTACK: SECRETIVE “SUE AND SETTLE” BACK IN PLAY AT EPA
The House Oversight Committee has since held a staff-level briefing with the EPA and requested documents from the relevant legal cases.
We’ll continue to update you as this breaking story unfolds.
This is just one more example of the impact we can make when we’re united to demand transparency from government!
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